1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an audio reproducing apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an audio reproducing apparatus for use with a disc-shaped recording medium.
2. Background of the Invention
In general, an audio reproducing apparatus is known for use with an optical disc such as a read-only optical disc or a magneto-optical disc. The optical disc is recorded with digital audio data. An audio reproducing apparatus includes an optical head, a spindle motor, a servo circuit and a signal processing circuit. The digital audio data is read from the disc by the optical head. The optical disc is rotated by the spindle motor at a constant linear velocity. The output signal of the optical head is supplied to the servo control circuit. The servo control circuit generates a focusing servo signal, a tracking servo signal and a spindle servo signal according to the output signal of the optical head. The focusing servo signal and the tracking servo signal is supplied to an actuator of the optical head. As a result, a focusing servo and a tracking servo is executed. The spindle servo signal is supplied to the spindle motor. The spindle motor is driven to rotate the disc at the constant linear velocity. The signal processing circuit carries out processing on the output signal from the optical head such as a decoding processing or a demodulating processing.
In order to execute reproduction of the data read out from the optical disc, a build-up process is required. The build-up process includes operations such as spindle rotation, focus search, the turning-on of the focus servo and the turning on of the tracking servo. It is not until the completion of the build-up process that an operation to read data can be started. For example, the build-up process is described in U.S. 4,656,617.
Due to the build-up process it takes at least two seconds for the user to be able to actually listen to reproduced sound after the user operates a play button.
Assume that music reproducing is stopped and it is desired to resume immediately the music reproducing from the stopped position. In this particular case, the resumption of the music reproducing gives rise to a problem that the user has to wait too long for the stopped music to be resumed. The poor response is caused by the time required for the build-up process and an operation to access the stopped position.